Goooaaaaaal

Before sharing my goals, I have to share this video. That’s me in a workout video with Jeanette Jenkins! Cool, right? This was filmed in May when I went to Cali, and I’m so happy FitSugar finally posted it yesterday. I look like a goofus in the video, but I don’t even care. I’m sharing it anyway!

Click on the Image to See the Video on FitSugar

Back to those goals…

I planned two little short-term goals. One is for the week, and one is for the month. I’ve never been that awesome at goal-setting or goal-attaining, but this is worth a shot, right?

Month Goal

I want to practice yoga more frequently. I normally only practice yoga once a month because I find it incredibly boring. However, I truly believe in the healing and rejuvenating powers of yoga.

Yoga improves my running and my flexibility while also lowering my stress levels and making my entire body feel more relaxed and refreshed. Sitting at a cube all day, wearing dress shoes, and staring at a computer screen is no fun. Some barefoot yoga with hip openers and back stretches helps undo the damage!

Kitties Distract Me

Now, if only I can stick to it… I’m shooting for three times per week. Each practice can be an hour long or just 10 minutes. Feel free to join me!

Week Goal

My tummy hasn’t been agreeing with all the weekend junk food me lately, so I’m giving it a little break. For as long as I can stand it (a few days or all the way through Friday), I’m limiting my caffeine intake by swapping 2 cups of coffee for 1 cup of tea. I’m also increasing my veggies and cutting out meat. I’ll also be cutting out all dairy and gluten. Luckily I don’t have lactose or gluten intolerance, but I’ve heard both can make you feel a bit more bloated and blah. Sooooo, why not? It’s just a few days, right?

Last Night's Dinner

On a side note, I actually thought I might have a gluten intolerance a year or two ago. I was losing my hair, experiencing major tummy troubles, and having horrible acne breakouts. No medicine was helping, and I was running out of options. It turns out the issue was just high stress. I had a lot on my plate; thank goodness I got better!

Do you set up goals for yourself? Do you have any current ones?

Sweatin’ on Saturday

As you all may remember, blisters kept me out of the gym all week.  Bummer!  Luckily, they had healed well enough for me to go for a run yesterday.  I completed 2.5 miles before completing a 10-minute ExerciseTV workout and my at-home lower body routine.

Lean Leg Routine (It’s cool because it rhymes.)

• *Complete 15-20 reps of each exercise (I mostly did 20) in three sets.
• Fire Hydrants (side leg lifts from table position)
• Bridge Pose with Leg Cross & Extension (booty burner!)
• Donkey Kicks (I straightened my leg and used a resistance band.)
• Lying Leg Lifts/Adductor Lift (inner thighs)
• Regular or Walking Lunges (walking are best)
• Plie Squat with Calf Raise

This week, my workouts were something like this…

• Monday: Exercise TV Warmup, Bootcamp BodyRock
• Tuesday: I Forgot My Cardio (oops), Lean Leg Routine
• Wednesday: 30-min Kickboxing DVD, Arm Work at Home
• Thursday: REST
• Friday: 2.5-mile run, Exercise TV 10-min Cardio, Lean Leg Routine
• Saturday: 4-mile Walk with Kev & Maybe Pilates

I also tried out one of my EAS goodies in a new way.  I am going to save the rest of them for on-the-go moments, but I wanted to see how they’d taste in a smoothie.

In goes the spinach…

Mix with a bit of strawberry (or chocolate) Myoplex Carb Control shake – add more (but not quite all) of the shake with a frozen banana…

And get a huge bowl of frothy, smooth goodness!  You can’t taste much strawberry, and you can’t taste any spinach.  It’s banana with a hint of berry.  As stated, I probably won’t be making this again, but it was quite tasty.  Not to mention, my ingredients made waaaaay bigger smoothie than I thought they would (especially because of it’s extra froth volume)!

I need to walk with Kev and work to do around the house before we have guests over tonight, so I better get going.  Have a great weekend!

Friday Eve

Happy Friday Eve!  See, when it’s one of those weeks when I can’t believe it’s only Thursday, I like to refer to the day as Friday Eve instead.  It sounds better, doesn’t it?

*******

I have a few opinionated tips for you all today.  The post is really pretty scatter-written because I’m scatter-brained right now.  Bear with me.

1. When swinging weights or kettle bells around “at tempo” during a workout, don’t hit yourself in the knee.  It bruises.  It hurts.

It's not a crazy one, but it's big for me!

2.  If you must go for a frozen meal, but an Evol dish.  I had my first one yesterday, and it was quite tasty.

Teriyaki Chicken Bowl

They’re healthy, gluten-free, and even the ingredients are attractive!

Sorry for Soy Haters

3. If you’re doing one-legged dead lifts, be sure to count how many you do.  I definitely overdid it on Tuesday, and it felt like I got kidney punched on both sides.  I was sore all day yesterday!

Thanks for the pic, Women's Health Magazine!

4. Have a backup plan.  On Monday, I gave into office pressure and had Mayfield Mint Chocolate Chip Select ice cream.  It was awesome.  Yesterday, I refused soft, fresh, delicious-smelling cookies.  Instead of grabbing a cookie, I had decaf vanilla chai tea.  Was it as good as a cookie?  Not even close.  Did I feel a lot better about myself (especially a lot better than Monday)?  Heck yes.  Thank goodness for backup plans!

It's tasty tea, but I later saw that it's artificially flavored. (Bummer!)

5. Don’t stress!  I’m busy and a little stressed at the moment with work and my friends’ inability to plan.  I’m also frustrated that I can’t find the answers I want for the blog.  I’d hoped to be self hosting by now with a slightly different look.  As you can see… I am not.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you took away at least one useful tidbit of knowledge!

What’s the best frozen or pre-prepared grocery meal you’ve had lately?

Go Away Mister Blister

This past weekend, I wore my boots instead of heels for tailgating. It sounded like a great idea at the time, especially because Kevin and I do so much walking on game days.

However… that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. I now have 2 enormous craters blisters on my heels, and they hurt like crazy. The blisters drastically changed my workout plan for the week. Instead of finishing up one more week of the Tearin’ It Up workout, I will be doing at-home workouts that can be completed barefoot.

I’ve found a couple good workouts online, but please let me know if you know of any other good ones I can try. I’ll share all my findings with you at the end of the week.

I wanted to share these 5 things that have been making me smile lately.

1. Monkey Socks with Penguin Shorts

Kev’s one lucky guy seeing this at night...

2. Nutritional Yeast: I didn’t like it on broccoli, but it’s a winner on spaghetti squash! I’m glad I gave it another shot.

Yummy Bowl of Squash

3. Funny Search Terms: I’m not sure who found my blog by searching for “sweaty pizza unicorn,” but I hope you found something useful here.

4. Packages: EAS sent me goodies recently. I can’t wait to try all the stuff and give a thorough and honest review.

5. Neck Wrap

I don’t talk about general wellness here, probably because I think I’m already living my life pretty darn well as it is. I still can’t deny that broad and overall wellness is important. Stress reduction is a big part of that, and with this busy week, I need a little extra stress reduction in my life. That’s where the awesome neck wrap comes into play. It’s warm, smells of soothing lavender, and goes really well with my hot mug of decaf chai tea.

What are you loving lately? Any fun, new products worth mentioning?

All in the name of good times…

Busy busy busy! I am actually up at 5:15 in the morning! Being this busy on a Saturday would normally be a bummer, but since it’s all for the sake of good times, I’m not complaining.

Here was last night’s healthy dinner:

I planned to try a dish from my Peas and Thank You cookbook, but I decided that was going to take way too much time and energy. I modified it and was relatively pleased. The sauce was good but a wee bit too tangy for me. I’ll definitely make it again, but I won’t add the full amount of apple cider vinegar. Kevin and I enjoyed this meal with chilled pinot grigio.

Here were my workouts for the week:

• Sunday: Cleaning House (That’s kind of a workout, right? It’s exhausting!)
• Monday: Elliptical (25 minutes with intervals), Leg Day with Reps in the 12-15 Range
• Tuesday: 99 Workout (with very modified pushups)
• Wednesday: Run (2.5 mi), Back Day with Reps in the 8-10 Range
• Thursday: Skip! (my body needed rest, though I did take a 30-minute walk)
• Friday: Arc Trainer(30 minutes), Arm Day with 3 Sets of 8-10 Reps
• Saturday: Run (2 mi, super speedy), I *would* do pilates if I had more time

I don’t plan on eating “clean” all weekend, but wish me luck on doing better than last weekend. Baby steps!

Ooohhhh by the way… aren’t these gorgeous??? I didn’t order them, but I was drooling over my keyboard when I saw them yesterday.

Nine West boots

Are you busy this weekend, or are you just busy relaxing?

Stumble It!

Burning calories… then eating them all up again

I rocked the gym yesterday. Seriously. I owned that place. After a short warm up, I completed my regular leg workout. I followed that with 30 minutes of stair-steppin’. Let’s just say that stair climber now knows who’s boss.

I’m happy with the way I’ve been packing on muscle lately, but I’m always careful not to over-do it with legs. That’s the only part of me that can bulk; though I must admit, even my legs don’t actually bulk all that much. Too many days of heavy lifting and too many days of bike (spin class aside) and/or stair climber can have a huge impact. For that reason, I’ll probably complete the same leg workout next week with 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise. I may also skip the stair climber. Don’t worry; I’ll be back at it the following week!

***Here’s a little tidbit of info – those with pear shapes should shy away from stair climbers and stationary bikes. These machines build the muscles you want to slim. The machines give many people a great rear view, but if you want to minimize any pear-ness, I’d limit stair climbing and stationary biking (spin class aside) to less than once per two weeks. I also happen to think stair machines with actual turning steps are the best steppers for lower body shaping.

I proceeded to consume loads of protein throughout the day. For my 1366 calories (a wee bit low, but not too much considering weekend splurges), I had 77 grams of protein. Sweeeeet. Sadly, my sodium was a bit high, but that’s okay every once in a while. This dinner helped with my muscle recovery.

Okay, that wasn’t my real dinner. I made this tenderloin roast last night, and that’s the entire roast. My dinner was more like this.

Yeah, that’s a lunch plate, not a huge dinner plate. Can you believe that’s 3.5 oz of beef? No, a better question is, can you believe that’s a recommended “portion?” I know that 12-oz restaurant steaks are ridiculous, but I guess it takes a while to re-train your brain from those gargantuan servings.

To wrap up the post, I just haaaaaad to share some links I’m loving.

1. Regarding the small plates… I love this Small Plate Movement. I recommend it to everyone!
2. I enjoyed reading Runner’s World’s healthy approach to weight loss. No gimmicks here.
3. I also can’t wait to try a few of Martha Stewart’s eggplant recipes, like this one or this one.

Have you heard of the Small Plate Movement? Do you follow “recommended” portions?

Sweatin’ on Saturday

I have a new move for you today, and I’m pretty pumped about it.  You know what else I’m pumped about?  My pumped up kicks!  They make training much more comfy!  (And I just like saying “pumped up kicks” because I love that song...)

Okay… here’s the video.  This is me explaining my version of the bench step-up.  Yes, I still feel goofy watching myself on film, but due to the success of last week’s cross-back lunge video, I thought I’d make another.  Enjoy!

If you try this move, please let me know by linking up or commenting.  I’d love to know if y’all like it.  I’m also open to other suggestions.  You know I’m not physical therapist, personal trainer, or anything like that, but if you have a trouble spot you’d like to tone, I can tell you what works for me!

Lastly – don’t be jealous, but this was my awesome dinner.  I had spaghetti squash and meat-less balls.  Yum!  Kevin had real pasta.

Our friends that came over for wine last night brought bake-shop brownies.  I avoided them all night, but finally had a piece of a peanut butter one to be nice.  I was so proud of myself for not going overboard, especially after a couple glasses of Chianti!  I even got them to take the leftovers home.  Woohoo!

In addition, I have already completed my quick run for today.  I often forget how good it feels to make good choices.

Have a great weekend!

Sweatin’ on Saturday

Helllloooooo!  I will be going for a short run and finishing up some pilates today before tailgating with buddies, but I wanted to share a move with you first.  It’s my first vlog post, so I hope you like it.  Stefanie mentioned creating a weekend blog-hop party, so you can see if other bloggers have linked up exercises, routines, and fitness inspiration at her site, The New Healthy.

Okay… on with the exercise.  This is a cross-back lunge.  It works your quads, booty, and that annoying saddlebag area.  It also kind of incorporates your core, especially when done “at tempo.”

It’s worth noting that I do not believe in spot-reduction.  You can tone certain areas, but you can’t just lose extra flab around one area, like your hips, butt, thighs, nose, or whatever.  Nevertheless, who doesn’t want a toned tush???  Exactly!  Now on with the video…

Thanks for bearing through that atrocious video.  I guess I could have re-recorded, but I’m a busy girl.  I could have also not worn a “Southern Comfort” shirt, but it’s one of my favorite workout tanks.

After your workout, don’t forget to refuel!

Greek yogurt, berries, n' Love Grown Foods granola

Tearin’ It Up

Want to hear something gross? When you strength train, you are actually putting little tears in your muscles, which often causes delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). When the muscles repair the tears, they build themselves stronger than they were… most of the time, anyway. Whenever I think about that, I get the heebie-geebies I am reminded as to how awesome the human body really is.

Why the tidbit of info? Today I’m sharing the workout I started this week. It focuses on lifting heavy, so you’ll be tearin’ it up in the gym. I don’t follow it exactly day-in and day-out, but I’ll be following it pretty darn closely through September.

The beach is that way....

For instance, I completed huge pyramid sets of dumbbell bench press instead of barbell bench press Tuesday night. All the barbell benches were taken, so I did what I could.

I may have taken bits and pieces from various sources, but if I remember correctly, this is a Tiff original. I’ve had it a few years, so I can only be 96% sure of this, not 100%. 96 is a pretty good percent, right???

• Day 1: Legs
• Barbell Squat: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Lying Leg Curls: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Leg Extensions: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Glute Kickbacks: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Day 2: Chest & Calves (Pilates at Night)
• Bench Press: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Cable Crossovers: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Pushups: 2 sets until failure
• Standing Calf Raises: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Donkey Calf Raises: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Day 3: Back
• Barbell Rows: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Lat Pulldown: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Reverse Flyes: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Day 4: Shoulders & Calves (Pilates at Night)
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Front Dumbbell Raises: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Lateral Raises: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Standing Calf Raises: 3 sets of 12 reps
• Donkey Calf Raises: 3 sets of 15 reps
• Day 5: Arms
• Rotate in a Functional Exercise: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Hammer Curls: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Barbell Curls: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Concentration Curls: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Triceps Kickbacks: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Rope Pushdowns: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Skullcrushers: 4 sets of 4-6 reps
• Day 6: Cardio
• Probably running or walking outdoors
• Day 7: Rest
• Alternate between 4 sets of 6 reps and 3 sets of 8/10 reps

Complete as much cardio as you’d like. This workout takes me about an hour to complete every day, excluding Day 6. That does not include the 20-30 extra minutes of pilates at night twice a week. If you are a cardio queen, feel free to extend that a bit. I allow myself frequent occasional cardio-free Fridays. You could also sub exercises for your main trouble spot once a week in lieu of calf exercises; it’s your workout!

Here are 3 free pilates workouts I’ve been loving lately. The first 2 are difficult, and the 3^rd is for lazy days.

1. Blogilates
2. Pilates Power
3. Less is More Pilates

As you all know, it’s important to refuel after a hard workout. Be sure to include protein and carbs in your post-workout munchies. The Greek yogurt I’ve been eating this week is full of protein, and it’s best when purchased in containers as big as your head. Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Wowzers! That's a lot of yogurt! And a double-chin!

How often do you change up your workouts? What are your favorite sites for workout videos?

Eat.Think.Smile… Win!

Yesterday evening, my giveaway came to a close. Thanks to all of you who entered. Now it’s time to announce the 5 winners!

Wait… nope… it’s not. First it’s time to talk about my workout, review some goodies, then announce winners! Ugh, I’m starting to sound like one of those reality show contests, but at least you don’t have to sit through awful commercials.

I had a great workout yesterday. I completed 35 minutes on the elliptical, and then I completed about 30 minutes of heavy lifting. I started a new workout, and I’ll share it with you a little later this week.

On a side note, having black cross trainers makes the walk to work less embarrassing. Stylin’!

I’ve had a chance to try more Eat.Think.Smile goodies since last week, but I still haven’t tried them all. I got most of them though, and it’s fairer to review the things that sound best to you, right? I think so.

The cocoa chewy bar was unique. It was a little too rice-y for me in texture (like Rice Krispies kind of rice), but the flavor was really good. I have mixed opinions on mixed berry. It was good, don’t me wrong. I’m just in the middle on this one, and I’m not sure why.

The salty thins were interesting too. They remind me of slightly puffed chocolate Teddy Grahams. These things weren’t particularly salty, so they won’t fix a salt craving. However, they seem like the perfect PMS food. They’re teeny, and you can eat 46 of ‘em before you reach 130 calories. Sweeeet.

I was most excited about the dark cherry baked nutrition bar and am so happy that I have extra to share with the winners. Eat.Think.Smile puts cocoa in their products for a big punch of antioxidant goodness, and what’s better than chocolate and cherry?

Not much. Unless it’s chocolate and cranberry! This cranberry & walnut granola was amazing! In fact, I pushed it deep into my pantry before I could polish off the entire bag. This stuff’s like candy – except better because I’m not a big candy person.

Okay… finally… and the winners are (drum roll please)…

1. Allie at Forgotten Beast
2. Lisa at Fit in the Midwest
3. Jessica @ Stylish Stealthy and Healthy
4. Claire
5. Krissy @ A Philly Nerd Girl

Yaaay for giveaways! Yaaaaaaay for winners! Thanks to everyone for reading.